Matt’s Blog

Since today is Blog Action Day: www.blogactionday.org I’ll take a moment to post about something we can all do to help the environment.  Recycling is without a doubt the easiest way to conserve energy while still maintaining lifestyle in America.  It’s the one thing we should all do, and if it were up to me, it would be signed into law immediately.  Many countries around the world recycle as a matter of course, and even children know what finished products are made from what types of recycled items.

If you live in an area that supports curbside recycling, then your life is made that much easier.  Cough up the few dollars it costs for the enrollment fee, and away you go.  Simply put the bin by your back door and drop in your recyclables instead of throwing them away.  It’s so easy it’s addictive.

If you don’t have curbside pickup however, you’ll need to sort your own items and take them by hand to donation centers.  If you live in a major city, you shouldn’t have trouble finding one.  Otherwise, contact your landfill for the closest location.

Sorting your own recycling is easy, you can spring for some bins like the ones I use:

Or just use anything you can find (milk crates might work well and are easily attainable).  Sort your recyclables into paper, plastic, glass, and steel (tin cans are steel and can be recycled) and take them to the closest center when they fill up.  It’s free (though they should be buying it from you)

Many other countries in the world do not have the vast land resources that we have in this country, but that doesn’t mean we should throw our garbage all over it.  Recycling saves land and energy and is incredibly easy.

If you’re from where I’m from, you’ll know what I’m talking about, and you’ll also probably know where I’m from. Otherwise, for those of you not from Salt Lake City, there is a raging debate going on here about providing the option to give vouchers to parents of school age children who want their kids to attend private schools and could would like to use some of the tax dollars that goes to education in this state to pay the tuition.

Before I state unequivocally that I’m against vouchers completely, let me say that my mother is a teacher in the public education system, and that certainly makes my opinion biased, nevertheless I still have that opinion, and I have many reasons for it which I will get to momentarily. One of the major points of those choosing to oppose the vouchers is that the subsidy provided will not be enough to pay for the average private school tuition, even proponents admit that the average private school tuition is somewhat higher than the voucher benefit will provide. Recently this argument has fallen under criticism by parents hoping to use the benefit. Their argument is that they feel they are being told they will fail, and the benefit will not be enough to help them. They feel they are willing to make the sacrifices necessary if the voucher can just get part of the way there they can successfully get their child into a private school. Sadly there are probably many other children whose parents might not be able to achieve the same for their child, and it strikes me as a little too close to a class based system.

I lived in Brazil for a while and saw very closely how difficult this can be. In Brazil, there is no public school system. Everyone sends their children to private schools, and they all choose the best one they can afford. Sometimes kids go uneducated. It is extremely difficult to arise out of poverty if you aren’t given a chance to be educated. I was educated in public schools, and I had a fantastic experience. Our public school system is a strength of this country, if it’s broken, we must fix it, not abandon it. Putting government money into unregulated private schools is a bad idea, strengthen the public school system, give every child a chance to succeed, not merely those with wealthy parents.